September 24, 2010: What you know at four is not what you know at forty.

The things we know as children are not the same things that we know as adults. We are immediately instilled with a sense of wonder about the world around us because there is so much that we cannot yet explain ourselves. We have a drive to learn and make sense of all the things around us, a sense of awe at the life and energy that makes up the world. We do not yet take it for granted, because we cannot for the life of us make any of these things plausible yet. The boundaries that we draw in our lives are constantly changing and pushed further out. They know the limits of their small bodies and unformed minds and are in awe of the perceived lack of limits that those older than them don't have.

The things we know as adults are not the same things we knew as children. The boundaries we see are no longer just boundaries of inabilities, they are boundaries of financial capabilities, political beliefs, moral and ethical values. The boundaries that were then so phenomenally unlimited are more complicated than those untrained eyes could see. And it pains us, that we are bound by these things. We look at children and wish that we could be as free as they can. We see them as having the constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And we see ourselves as being inhibited and kept from those rights.

I believe that we need to embrace the human experience of life, that we need to encourage growth amongst ourselves and never believe that there are any limitations into the things that we can do. That life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are things that we have innately and we lose them if we believe we lose them. The power of our minds is amazing and what we think has the power to change our beliefs and how we live our lives.

Love, Polly.